It costs more than DKK 30 million a day to build the Fehmarn link.
That figure appears in the latest annual report from Femern A/S, which says it expects project activity of around DKK 11 billion in 2026 on the fixed link between Rødbyhavn on Lolland and Puttgarden on the German island of Fehmarn.
Femern A/S is the Danish state’s project company under Sund & Bælt and is the client for the coast-to-coast link between Denmark and Germany. The 18-kilometre tunnel is being built from 89 concrete elements cast at Rødbyhavn, towed into the Fehmarn Belt and lowered onto the seabed. Each standard element is 217 metres long and weighs 73,000 tonnes.
Expectations were also high last year. In its 2024 annual report, Femern A/S expected project activity of around DKK 10.2 billion in 2025, equivalent to just under DKK 28 million a day. The 2025 accounts show, however, that the company’s investments in property, plant and equipment ended at DKK 7.2 billion, equivalent to just under DKK 20 million a day.
Hit by problems
The DKK 11 billion expected this year gives a concrete measure of the scale of the construction work. The money goes into an extensive production and logistics system that includes the element factory on Lolland, port facilities, the tunnel trench, the immersion of the elements and the technical systems that will later make the link ready for cars and trains.
The high level of activity comes as the project is facing problems in the phase that will bring the tunnel together. FemernBusiness has previously described how the immersion of the tunnel elements has become a central bottleneck, because the work depends on the specialist vessel Ivy, the condition of the tunnel trench, weather windows in the Fehmarn Belt and the German environmental requirements that govern offshore work.
Delays involving Ivy have already cost the project dearly in time. The vessel is needed to immerse the tunnel elements, but after a lengthy approval process, it is no longer the paperwork surrounding Ivy alone that determines progress. The pressure now lies in whether the immersion work itself can begin and be maintained at a stable pace in a tunnel trench that has also been a point of dispute between Sund & Bælt and the main contractor Femern Link Contractors.
Large claims
The project is also marked by financial conflict. Femern Link Contractors has submitted a claim of DKK 14.5 billion against Femern A/S, citing changed conditions and delays. At the same time, an international arbitration case is under way over coronavirus-related delays, in which the contractor is claiming around DKK 570 million.
The Fehmarn link is Denmark’s largest construction project. The official framework for the coast-to-coast link itself is DKK 55.1 billion in 2015 prices, equivalent to around DKK 67 billion in today’s prices. According to Børsen, the tunnel itself is now expected to cost more than DKK 70 billion in current prices, while the total construction bill, including land facilities on both sides of the border, is expected to exceed DKK 100 billion.
